1
CURRICULUM VITAE
Royal Skousen
Fundamental Scholarly Discoveries and Academic Accomplishments listed in an addendum first placed online in 2014
plus an additional statement regarding the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project from November 2014 through December 2018
13 May 2020
O in 2017-2020 in progress
Royal Skousen
Professor of Linguistics and English Language 4037 JFSB Brigham Young University Provo, Utah 84602 [email protected]
801-422-3482 (office, with phone mail) 801-422-0906 (fax) personal born 5 August 1945 in Cleveland, Ohio married to Sirkku Unelma Härkönen, 24 June 1968 7 children 2 education
1963 graduated from Sunset High School, Beaverton, Oregon
1969 BA (major in English, minor in mathematics), Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
1971 MA (linguistics), University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois
1972 PhD (linguistics), University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois teaching positions
1970-1972 instructor of the introductory and advanced graduate courses in mathematical linguistics, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois
1972-1979 assistant professor of linguistics, University of Texas, Austin, Texas
1979-1981 assistant professor of English and linguistics, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
1981-1986 associate professor of English and linguistics, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
1986-2001 professor of English and linguistics, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
O 2001-2018 professor of linguistics and English language, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
2007-2010 associate chair, department of linguistics and English language, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
O 2018-2020 professor of linguistics, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah visiting positions
1981 linguistics, visiting professor, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California (linguistic evidence, phonological theory)
1982 linguistics, Fulbright lecturer, University of Tampere, Finland (probabilistic linguistics, phonological theory)
2001 linguistics, research fellow, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands (analogical modeling, quantum computing) 3 consulting
1978-1982 Houghton Mifflin, Boston (grades 1-8 spelling program: 1st edition, 1982; 2nd edition, 1985)
1979-1980 Weidner Communications, Provo, Utah (structure of English)
1984 WordPerfect Corporation, Orem, Utah (first spelling checker for WordPerfect [version 4.0])
1984-1985 International Telephone and Telegraph, Shelton, Connecticut (probabilistic linguistics and English spelling and pronunciation)
1986 Genealogical Department, LDS Church, Salt Lake City, Utah (spelling of names)
1989 Collins Publishers, Edinburgh, Scotland (British-American vocabulary differences)
1989-1999 LDS Church Scriptures Committee (text of the Book of Mormon)
1992 Novell, Provo, Utah (graphics in technical writing)
2002 American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (standards for high school English teachers)
2003 American Diploma Project (knowledge requirements for graduating high school seniors)
O 2012- Joseph Smith Papers, lead editor for the three volumes of the Book of Mormon manuscripts (photographs with facsimile transcripts) awards, lectureships, fellowships, and grants
1964 freshman mathematics award, mathematics department, Brigham Young University
1969 first prize, Hart-Larson poetry contest, English department, Brigham Young University (“Shocking Spiel”)
1969-1972 NDEA fellowship, title IV, Department of Linguistics, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
1974 summer research award, University Research Institute, University of Texas, Austin (acquisition of phonology) 1976-1977 Spencer Foundation, Chicago (probabilistic descriptions of English spelling) 4
1985-1986 James L. Barker lectureship in language and linguistics, College of Humanities, Brigham Young University (linguistically difficult passages in the scriptures)
1999-2000 Karl G. Maeser Research and Creative Arts Award, Brigham Young University
2014 Distinguished Alumnus Award, Department of Linguistics, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
2016 Mormon History Association, Best Documentary Editing, presented to Royal Skousen and Robin Jensen, editors, for “Joseph Smith Papers, Revelations and Translations, volume 3: Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon”, published by the Church Historian’s Press, 2015 professional organizations
O National Association of Scholars President, Utah Association of Scholars (1999- ) current research interests
textual criticism (editor, Book of Mormon critical text project) probabilistic and stochastic approaches to linguistics analogical modeling of language quantum computing natural statistics phonological theory English spelling Finnish morphology left-to-right processing grammars of English English usage history of the book foreign languages
Finnish [fluent] German, French [reading knowledge, some speaking] Greek (koine), Latin, Old English, Swedish, Hebrew [reading knowledge] 5 computer languages
Perl C/C++ Pascal / Delphi courses taught
phonology introduction to linguistics mathematical linguistics [logic and automata theory] phonetics historical linguistics language acquisition history of linguistics English spelling morphology Finnish structure Finnish literature probability and statistics English syntax technical writing structure of English traditional grammar introduction to literature language and literature history of the English language introduction to the English language English usage textual criticism analogical modeling history of the book editorial boards
O 1993- Journal of Quantitative Linguistics Associate Editor, 2003-
1987-1997 Computers and the Humanities acted as referee
research proposals: National Science Foundation 6
manuscript reviews: Language Oxford University Press Cambridge University Press Prentice-Hall St. Martin’s Press Computers and the Humanities Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies BYU Studies Journal of Quantitative Linguistics Lingua John Benjamins Cognition Acta Linguistica Hungarica Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture Language and Cognition community service related to field
The Great Grammar Debate (with Don Norton), English Society, Brigham Young University, January 1989, Provo, Utah participation in international meetings
invited participant in symposium on psychological reality of phonological descriptions, Ninth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 1979, Copenhagen, Denmark
chaired phonology section, Ninth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 1979, Copenhagen, Denmark
chaired phonology section, Tenth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 1983, Utrecht, The Netherlands
program committee, International Conference on New Methods in Language Processing, 14-16 September 1994, Centre for Computational Linguistics, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, Manchester, United Kingdom
program committee, Second International Conference on Quantitative Linguistics, 20-24 September 1994, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
plenary speaker, First Scandinavian Conference on Finnish Language and Literature, 27 May 1994, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden (plus an hour-long computer demonstration) 7
plenary speaker, Third International Conference on Quantitative Linguistics, 27 August 1997, Helsinki, Finland
chaired session, Third International Conference on Quantitative Linguistics, 27 August 1997 Helsinki, Finland dissertations supervised at the University of Texas at Austin
James Robert Scott, Morphology in Historical Change, 1975.
Leon Franklin Kenman, The Phonetics of Standard Russian Unstressed Vowels together with a Critical Survey of Phonological Interpretations of akanje-ikanje, 1975.
Ernesto Baldomero Lombeida-Naranjo, Ecuadorean Highland Quechua Phonology, 1976.
Salem Ghazeli, Back Consonants and Backing Co-Articulation in Arabic, 1977.
Steven Roy Chandler, The Induction of Linguistic Generalizations, 1979. theses supervised at Brigham Young University
Richard T. Stephens, English Usage: Basic Competency Defined, 1980.
Judy Wilson, Spelling Difficulty of Paired Suffixes: ant/ent, ance/ence, ancy/ency, able/ible, 1986.
Kent Chauncey, Automatic Recognition of Relative Clauses with Missing Relative Pronoun, 1989.
Delys Waite Cowles, A Lexical Approach to the Development of Voiced Fricatives in English, 1990.
Timothy W. Hiatt, Can Authors Alter their Wordprints: James Joyce's Ulysses, 1993.
Jon Nielson, Authorship of the King James Version of The Bible, 1994.
Renée Bangerter, Since Joseph Smith's Time: Lexical Semantic Shifts in the Book of Mormon, 1998.
Jari J. Vesterinen, Analogical Modeling of Finnish Nominals, 2001.
Daniel William Jewell, The Negative Adjectival Prefix in English, 2001.
O Michael De Martini, Yea yea, nay nay: Uses of the archaic, biblical yea in the Book of Mormon, 2019 8
PRESENTATIONS
[• means that the talk was an invited one, + means that my expenses and/or an honorarium was also paid by the inviters]
• 1. “On Finnish Vowel Harmony”, Urbana Conference on Phonology, Department of Linguistics, University of Illinois, 24 April 1971, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.
• 2. “Empirical Restrictions on the Power of Transformational Grammars”, Conference on the Formal Aspects of Cognitive Processes, University of Michigan, 19 March 1972, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
3. “On Capturing Regularities”, Chicago Linguistic Society, 15 April 1972, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
4. “The French Verbal System”, Conference on Diachronic Romance Linguistics, 22 April 1972, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.
5. “Restrictions on Phonetically-Plausible Rules in Phonology”, Linguistic Society of America, December 1972, Atlanta, Georgia.
• 6. “Surface Rules in Phonology”, Conference on the Expanding Domain of Linguistics, Department of Linguistics, University of Texas, 26 March 1973, Austin, Texas.
7. “On Analogy”, Linguistic Society of America, 30 December 1973, San Diego, California.
8. “The Phonology of Drunkenness” (with Leland Lester), Chicago Linguistic Society, 18 April 1974, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
9. “Deterministic Versus Probabilistic Descriptions of Behavior”, 3rd International Conference of Nordic and General Linguistics, 5 April 1976, University of Texas, Austin, Texas.
• 10. “Probabilistic Induction of Finnish Morphological Relations”, Trans-Atlantic Finnish Conference, University of Texas, 10 April 1976, Austin, Texas.
11. “Probabilistic Induction of the Phoneme”, Deseret Language and Linguistics Society, 30 March 1977, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
• 12. “Empirical Interpretations of Psychological Reality”, 9th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 11 August 1979, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
13. “English Spelling and Phonological Representation”, Linguistic Society of America, 28 December 1979, Los Angeles, California. 9
14. “English Spelling and Phonological Representation”, Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, 27-28 March 1980, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
+ 15. “Nominative Singular and Stem Relationships in Finnish”, 2nd International Conference on Finnish Studies in North America, 12 April 1980, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
+ 16. “The Principle of Homogeneity in Linguistic Theory”, Department of Linguistics, University of Michigan, 14 April 1980, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
17. “Probabilistic Descriptions of Finnish Morphology”, 5th International Fenno-Ugric Congress, 21 August 1980, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
18. “Systemic Versus Atomistic Approaches to Language Description”, Linguistic Society of America, 28 December 1980, San Antonio, Texas.
19. “Probabilistic Descriptions of Finnish Morphology”, Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, 26 March 1981, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
• 20. “The Effects of Spelling on Phonemic Representation”, Department of Linguistics, University of California at San Diego, 17 April 1981, La Jolla, California.
+ 21. “Probabilistic Descriptions of Language”, University of Oulu, 26 March 1982, Oulu, Finland.
+ 22. “Probabilistic Descriptions of Language”, University of Helsinki, 5 April 1982, Helsinki, Finland.
+ 23. “Probabilistic Descriptions of Language”, University of Turku, 3 May 1982, Turku, Finland.
+ 24. “Probabilistic Descriptions of Language”, University of Jyväskylä, 5 May 1982, Jyväskylä, Finland.
25. “Analogical Descriptions of Probabilistic Language Behavior”, Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, 8 April 1983, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
26. “Spelling Errors as Evidence for Phonemic Analysis”, 10th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 4 August 1983, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
27. “Analogical Descriptions of Variation”, 12th Conference on New Ways of Analyzing Variation in English, 28 October 1983, University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
28. “An Analogical Description of Morphological Variation in Finnish”, 13th Conference on New Ways of Analyzing Variation in English, 26 October 1984, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 10
+ 29. “Analogical Descriptions of Language”, Technical Seminar Series, ITT Advanced Technology Center, 13 December 1984, Shelton, Connecticut.
30. “An Analogical Description of Morphological Variation in Finnish”, Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, 15 February 1985, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
• 31. “The Dialect of the Kalevala”, Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies, 4 May 1985, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.
+ 32. “Through a Glass Darkly: Trying to Understand the Scriptures”, Barker lecture, College of Humanities, Brigham Young University, 2 October 1985, Provo, Utah.
+ 33. “An Analogical Non-Rule Approach to Language Description”, Alberta Conference on Linguistics, 19 October 1985, Banff, Alberta, Canada.
+ 34. “Natural Statistics in Linguistic Description”, Department of Linguistics, University of Alberta, 21 October 1985, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
+ 35. “An Analogical Description of Morphological Variation in Finnish”, 3rd International Conference on Finnish Studies in North America, 25 April 1986, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.
36. “An Analogical Description of Finnish Morphology”, 6th International Conference of Nordic and General Linguistics, 19 August 1986, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
37. “Analogical Descriptions of Language”, Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, 26 March 1987, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
+ 38. “Computational Derivation of Analogical Sets”, seminar, Cogent Research, 22 July 1987, Beaverton, Oregon.
39. “An Alternative Critical Text of the Book of Mormon” (paper plus panel discussion with John W. Welch and Lyle L. Fletcher), Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, 17 March 1988, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
+ 40. “‘Miss Stopp, can I go to the bathroom?’: The Travails of a Modern Grammarian”, Eris Society, 12 August 1988, The Snowmass Club, Aspen, Colorado.
• 41. “Real-Time Morphology: Symbolic Rules or Analogical Networks” (with Bruce L. Derwing), Berkeley Linguistics Society, 17-19 February 1989, University of California, Berkeley, California.
42. “Early Textual Errors in the Book of Mormon”, Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, 13 March 1989, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. 11
43. “Progress Report on the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project”, Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, 22 February 1990, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
44. “The Book of Mormon Critical Text Project”, Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, 7 March 1991, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
45. “New Fragments from the Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon”, Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, 20 February 1992, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
• 46. “Translating, Copying, and Publishing the Book of Mormon: New Findings from the Critical Text Project”, Joseph Smith Symposium, Brigham Young University, 22 February 1992, Provo, Utah.
+ 47. “Analogy: A Non-Rule Alternative to Neural Networks”, The Reality of Linguistic Rules, 21st Annual Linguistics Symposium, University of Wisconsin, 12 April 1992, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
48. “Productivity and the English past tense: a test of Skousen's Analogy Model” (with Bruce L. Derwing), The Reality of Linguistic Rules, 21st Annual Linguistics Symposium, University of Wisconsin, 12 April 1992, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
+ 49. “A Critical Text Analysis of the Book of Mormon”, Eris Society, 7 August 1992, The Aspen Inn, Aspen, Colorado.
• 50. “The Original Language of the Book of Mormon: Upstate New York Dialect, King James English, or Hebrew?”, Association for Mormon Letters, 23 January 1993, Westminster College, Salt Lake City, Utah.
51. “Hebraisms in the Original Text of the Book of Mormon”, Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, 1 April 1993, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
52. “Critical Methodology and the Text of the Book of Mormon”, Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, 4 March 1994, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
• 53. “Textual Variants in the Isaiah Quotations in the Book of Mormon”, Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 20 May 1995, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
+ 54. “Analogical Modeling of Finnish Morphology”, 1st Scandinavian Conference on Finnish Language and Literature, Stockholm University, 27 May 1994, Stockholm, Sweden.
55. “Fragments from the ‘American Dead Sea’: Reconstructing the Original Text of the Book of Mormon”, Deseret Language and Linguistics Society, 9 March 1995, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. 12
+ 56. “Fragments from the ‘American Dead Sea’: Reconstructing the Original Text of the Book of Mormon”, Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center, 13 March 1995, Claremont, California.
+ 57. “Fragments from the ‘American Dead Sea’: Reconstructing the Original Text of the Book of Mormon”, University of Judaism, 14 March 1995, Los Angeles, California.
• 58. “John Gilbert's 1892 Account of the 1830 Printing of the Book of Mormon”, Pioneers of the Restoration, Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, and Religious Education, Brigham Young University, 8 March 1997, Provo, Utah.
59. “Conjectural Emendation of the Book of Mormon Text”, Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, 20 February 1997, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
• 60. “Analogy: Learning Language without Rules”, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, 13 March 1997, Orlando, Florida.
+ 61. “Applying Analogical Modeling to Language Problems”, Department of Linguistics, University of Washington, 11 April 1997, Seattle, Washington.
• 62. “Translating the Book of Mormon: Evidence from the Original Manuscript”, Ancient Scriptures and the Restoration, Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, and the Smith Institute for Church History, Brigham Young University, 7 June 1997, Provo, Utah.
63. “Natural Statistics in Language Modeling”, 3rd International Conference on Quantitative Linguistics, 27 August 1997, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
+ 64. “Developments in Analogical Modeling”, Department of Computational Linguistics, University of Trier, 11 December 1997, Trier, Germany.
+ 65. “Reducing the Exponential Explosion for Analogical Modeling”, Round Table on Algorithms for Memory-Based Language Processing, 12 December 1997, Corsendonk, Turnhout, Belgium.
• 66. “Language Without Rules”, Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, 3 April 1998, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
67. “The Analogical Modeling Research Group: Reviews and Prospects”, Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, 18 February 1999, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
68. “Basic Description of Analogical Modeling”, Conference on Analogical Modeling of Language, 22 March 2000, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
69. “Issues in Analogical Modeling”, Conference on Analogical Modeling of Language, 23 March 2000, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. 13
70. “Predicting the Finnish Past-Tense Analogically”, Conference on Analogical Modeling of Language, 24 March 2000, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
71. “Quantum Analogical Modeling of Language”, Conference on Analogical Modeling of Language, 24 March 2000, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
+ 72. “Quantum Computing of Analogical Modeling of Language”, Morphology Workshop, 12 June 2001, Max Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics, University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
+ 73. “Quantum Analogical Modeling of Language”, 21 June 2001, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
• 74. “History of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project”, 20 October 2001, FARMS symposium, The Original Text of the Book of Mormon: Findings from the Critical Text Project, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
• 75. “The Systematic Text of the Book of Mormon”, 20 October 2001, FARMS symposium, The Original Text of the Book of Mormon: Findings from the Critical Text Project, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
• 76. “Counting the Changes in the Book of Mormon Text”, 2002 FAIR Conference, 10 August 2002, Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Utah Valley State College, Orem, Utah.
+ 77. “Analogical Modeling: Exemplars, Rules, and Quantum Computing”, 14 February 2003, Berkeley Linguistics Society, University of California, Berkeley, California.
+ 78. “Recovering the Original Text of the Book of Mormon: Findings from the Critical Text Project”, 21 July 2005, forum address, Brigham Young University Idaho, Rexburg, Idaho.
+ 79. “Expanding Analogical Modeling into a General Theory of Language Prediction”, 23 September 2006, conference on Analogy in Grammar: Form and Acquisition, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
• 80. “Recent Trends in Analogical Modeling of Language”, 2 October 2006, Department of Linguistics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
• 81. “Oliver Cowdery as Book of Mormon Scribe”, 10 November 2006, conference at Brigham Young University on Oliver Cowdery: Restoration Witness, Second Elder. Provo, Utah.
82. “Quantum Computing of Analogical Modeling of Language”, Symposium on Quantum Interaction, 26-28 March 2007, American Association for Artificial Intelligence, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California. 14
• 83. “Restoring the Original Text of the Book of Mormon”, 2010 FAIR Conference, 5 August 2010, Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Sandy, Utah.
• 84. “Restoring the Original Text of the Book of Mormon”, Book of Mormon Lands Conference, 5 November 2011, Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum, Salt Lake City, Utah. [some different material from the previous]
• 85. “The Manuscripts of the Book of Mormon”, 21 February 2012, LDS Church Historical Department, Salt Lake City, Utah.
• 86. “The Printed Editions of the Book of Mormon”, 28 February 2012, LDS Church Historical Department, Salt Lake City, Utah.
• 87. “The Original Text of the Book of Mormon”, 6 March 2012, LDS Church Historical Department, Salt Lake City, Utah.
• 88. “Do we need to make changes to the Book of Mormon text?”, 2012 FAIR Conference, 2 August 2012, Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Sandy, Utah.
• 89. “Three Lectures on the Book of Mormon: The Original and Printer’s Manuscripts”, Maxwell Institute and the Harold B. Lee Library, 26 February 2013, Hinckley Center, BYU, Provo, Utah.
• 90. “Three Lectures on the Book of Mormon: The Printed Editions”, Maxwell Institute and the Harold B. Lee Library, 5 March 2013, Hinckley Center, BYU, Provo, Utah.
• 91. “Three Lectures on the Book of Mormon: The Nature of the Original Text”, Maxwell Institute and the Harold B. Lee Library, 12 March 2013, Hinckley Center, BYU, Provo, Utah.
+ 92. “A History of the Printed Editions of the Book of Mormon: From the Original Manuscript to the Yale Edition”, 2013 A. Dean Larsen Book Collecting Conference, 22 March 2013, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, BYU, Provo, Utah.
+ 93. “Restoring the Original Text of the Book of Mormon”, 13th Annual Mormon Studies Conference, “The Expanded Canon: Perspective on Mormonism and Sacred Texts”, 4 April 2013, Utah Valley University, Orem, Utah.
• 94. “Hypotheses and Evidence in Book of Mormon Research”, Book of Mormon Lands Conference, 19 October 2013, Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum, Provo, Utah.
+ 95. “Exemplar-Based Linguistics”, University of Illinois, Department of Linguistics, invited lecture, 21 April 2014, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. 15
+ 96. “Linguistics and Textual Criticism, Or, Why linguists should do textual criticism!” University of Illinois, Department of Linguistics, invited lecture, Distinguished Alumnus Award, 22 April 2014, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.
• 97. “Issues in Scripture Translation”, Translation, Interpretation and Localization Fair, Brigham Young University, 10 October 2014, Provo, Utah.
• 98. “A theory! A theory! We have already got a theory, and there cannot be any more theories!” Exploring the Complexities in the English Language of the Book of Mormon, sponsored by BYU Studies and the Interpreter Foundation, Brigham Young University, 14 March 2015, Provo, Utah.
• 99. “These were days never to be forgotten”: The Witnesses to the Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon”, with Robin Jensen of the Joseph Smith Papers. Brigham Young University, 8 September 2015, Provo, Utah.
• 100. “Transcribing the Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon”, John Whitmer Historical Association, 24 September 2015, Independence, Missouri
• 101. “The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon”, a presentation on volume 3 of the critical text, at the annual meeting of the Brigham Young University Academy, BYU Studies, 12 March 2016, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah
• 102. “Editing Out the ‘Bad Grammar’ in the Book of Mormon”, with Stanford Carmack, sponsored by BYU Studies, the Interpreter Foundation, the Department of Linguistics, and the College of Humanities, Brigham Young University, 6 April 2016, Provo, Utah.
• 103. “Bad Grammar or Early Modern English? The Language of the Original Text of the Book of Mormon”, with Stanford Carmack. FAIR talk, August 2016, Provo, Utah.
•O 104. “A New Edition: Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon”, sponsored by BYU Studies, the Interpreter Foundation, and the Department of Linguistics, Brigham Young University, 12 April 2017, Provo, Utah
•O 105. “Poetic Structures and Textual Criticism of the Book of Mormon”, John W. Welch’s conference celebrating the discovery of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon 50 years ago, 15 August 2017, sponsored by BYU Studies.
•O 106. “The Nature of the Original Language of the Book of Mormon”, sponsored by BYU Studies and the Interpreter Foundation, Brigham Young University, 25 September 2018, Provo, Utah.
•O 107. “The History of the Book of Mormon Text: Parts 5 and 6 of Volume 3 of the Critical Text”, sponsored by BYU Studies, the BYU College of Humanities, the Interpreter Foundation, and Book of Mormon Central, 15 January 2020, Provo, Utah. 16
PUBLICATIONS books
1. Substantive Evidence in Phonology: The Evidence from Finnish and French. Mouton: The Hague, The Netherlands, 1975. [135 pages]
2. Analogical Modeling of Language. Kluwer: Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 1989. [224 pages]
3. Analogy and Structure. Kluwer: Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 1992. [388 pages]
4. The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon: Typographical Facsimile of the Extant Text. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University: Provo, Utah, 2001. [559 pages]
5. The Printer's Manuscript of the Book of Mormon: Typographical Facsimile of the Entire Text in Two Parts. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University: Provo, Utah, 2001. [991 pages]
6. Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part One: Title Page, Witness Statements, 1 Nephi 1 – 2 Nephi 10. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University: Provo, Utah, 2004. [660 pages]
7. Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part Two: 2 Nephi 11 – Mosiah 16. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University: Provo, Utah, 2005. [610 pages]
8. Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part Three: Mosiah 17 – Alma 20. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University: Provo, Utah, 2006. [671 pages]
9. Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part Four: Alma 21-55. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University: Provo, Utah, 2007. [697 pages]
10. The Allegory of the Olive Tree, edited by Royal Skousen. Tryst Press (letterpress book by Rob and Georgia Buchert): Provo, Utah, 2007. [32 pages]
11. Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part Five: Alma 56 – 3 Nephi 18. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University: Provo, Utah, 2008. [713 pages]
12. Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part Six: 3 Nephi 19 – Moroni 10; Addenda. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University: Provo, Utah, 2009. [636 pages] 17
13. The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text. Yale University Press: New Haven, Connecticut, 2009 (first printing) / 2010 (second corrected printing) / 2014 (third printing, unchanged from the second). [848 pages]
14. The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text. Print Replica Kindle edition from Amazon.com, 2013 (an exact reproduction of the 2010 second printing of the Yale edition of the Book of Mormon, with search and highlight capabilities). [848 pages]
15. The Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, part 1: 1 Nephi 1 – Alma 35, and part 2: Alma 36 – Moroni 10; edited by Royal Skousen and Robin Scott Jensen. The Joseph Smith Papers, Revelations and Translations, volume 3, parts 1 and 2. The Church Historian’s Press: Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015. [1,024 pages]
16. Grammatical Variation, parts 1 and 2. The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon, volume 3 of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies and Brigham Young University Studies: Provo, Utah, 2016. [1,304 pages]
O 17. Analysis of Textual Variance of the Book of Mormon, second edition, in six parts. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies and Brigham Young University Studies. Provo, Utah, 2017 [4,012 pages]
O 18. The Nature of the Original Language, parts 3 and 4, The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon, volume 3 of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies and Brigham Young University Studies: Provo, Utah, 2018 [1,408 pages]
O 19. The King James Quotations in the Book of Mormon, part 5, The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon, volume 3 of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies and Brigham Young University Studies: Provo, Utah, 2019 [431 pages]
O 20. Spelling in the Manuscripts and Editions, part 6, The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon, volume 3 of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies and Brigham Young University Studies: Provo, Utah, 2020 [590 pages]
21. The Transmission of the Text: From the Manuscripts Through the Editions, part 7, and Book of Mormon Textual Criticism, part 7, The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon, volume 3 of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies and Brigham Young University Studies: Provo, Utah, 2021
22. Book of Mormon Textual Criticism, part 8, The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon, volum3 of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies and Brigham Young University Studies: Provo, Utah, 2022
23. The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, edited by Royal Skousen and Robin Scott Jensen. The Joseph Smith Papers, Revelations and Translations, volume 5. The Church Historian’s Press: Salt Lake City, Utah, 2022
24. A Complete Electronic Collation of the Book of Mormon (on CDs, online, and at least one archival copy in special collections at Brigham Young University), volume 5 of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project. The Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University Studies: Provo, Utah, 2023
1. “Consonant Gradation in Finnish”, Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 1 (1971): 67-91. Department of Linguistics, University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.
2. “Consonant Alternation in Fula”, Studies in African Linguistics 3 (1972): 77-96. Department of Linguistics, University of California: Los Angeles, California.
3. “Empirical Restrictions on the Power of Transformational Grammars”, Papers in Linguistics 5 (1972): 250-269. Linguistic Research: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
4. “Empirical Restrictions on the Power of Transformational Grammars”, York Papers in Linguistics 2 (1972): 61-70. Department of Language, University of York: Heslington, England.
5. “On Capturing Regularities”, Papers from the Eighth Regional Meeting Chicago Linguistic Society, 567-577. Chicago Linguistic Society: Chicago, Illinois, 1972.
6. “On Limiting the Number of Phonological Descriptions”, Glossa 7 (1973): 167-178.
7. “Finnish Vowel Harmony: Rules and Conditions”, Issues in Phonological Theory, edited by Michael Kenstowicz and Charles W. Kisseberth, 118-129. Mouton: The Hague, The Netherlands, 1973.
8. “Evidence in Phonology”, Studies in Generative Phonology, edited by Charles W. Kisseberth, 72-103. Linguistic Research: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 1973.
9. “The Phonology of Drunkenness” (with Leland Lester), Papers from the Parasession on Natural Phonology, edited by Anthony Bruck, Robert A. Fox, and Michael W. LaGaly, 233-239. Chicago Linguistic Society: Chicago, Illinois, 1974.
10. “An Explanatory Theory of Morphology”, Papers from the Parasession on Natural Phonology, edited by Anthony Bruck, Robert A. Fox, and Michael W. LaGaly, 318-327. Chicago Linguistic Society: Chicago, Illinois, 1974. 19
11. “The Verbal System of French”, Studies in Diachronic Romance Linguistics, edited by Mario Saltarelli and Dieter Wanner, 195-205. Mouton: The Hague, The Netherlands, 1975.
12. “Empirical Restrictions on the Power of Transformational Grammars”, Formal Aspects of Cognitive Processes, edited by Thomas Storer and David Winter, 204-214. Springer-Verlag: Berlin, 1975.
13. “On the Nature of Morphophonemic Alternation”, The Transformational-Generative Paradigm and Modern Linguistic Theory, edited by E. F. K. Koerner, 185-231. John Benjamins: Amsterdam, 1975.
14. “Deterministic Versus Probabilistic Descriptions of Behavior”, The Nordic Languages and Modern Linguistics: Proceedings of the Third International Conference of Nordic and General Linguistics, edited by John Weinstock, 507-513. The University of Texas: Austin, Texas, 1978.
15. “Empirical Interpretations of Psychological Reality”, Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, edited by Eli Fischer-Jørgensen, Jørgen Rischel, and Nina Thorsen, volume II: 121-128. Institute of Phonetics, University of Copenhagen: Copenhagen, Denmark, 1979.
16. “Analogical Sources of Abstractness”, Phonology in the 1980's, edited by Didier L. Goyvaerts, 55-92. E. Story-Scientia: Ghent, Belgium, 1981.
17. “Probabilistic Descriptions of Finnish Morphology”, Proceedings of the Fifth International Fenno-Ugric Congress, edited by Osmo Ikola, volume VI: 267-272. Suomen Kielen Seura: Turku, Finland, 1981.
18. “English Spelling and Phonemic Representations”, Visible Language 16 (1982): 28-38.
19. “Analogical Predictions of the Past Tense in Finnish”, Studies in Finnish Language and Culture, edited by Royal Skousen, 25-44. Ministry of Education, Government of Finland: Helsinki, Finland, 1986.
20. “The Dialect of the Kalevala”, Scandinavian Studies 58:3 (Summer 1986): 275-284.
21. “Through a Glass Darkly: Trying to Understand the Scriptures”, BYU Studies 26:4 (Fall 1986): 3-20.
22. “An Analogical Description of Morphological Variation in Finnish”, The Nordic Languages and Modern Linguistics: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference of Nordic and General Linguistics, edited by Pirkko Lilius and Mirja Saari, 337-355. Helsinki University Press: Helsinki, Finland, 1987. 20
23. “Real-Time Morphology: Symbolic Rules or Analogical Networks” (with Bruce L. Derwing), Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 48-62. Berkeley Linguistics Society: Berkeley, California, 1989.
24. “Morphology in the Mental Lexicon: A New Look at Analogy” (with Bruce L. Derwing), Morphology Yearbook 2 (1989): 55-71.
25. “Towards a Critical Edition of the Book of Mormon”, BYU Studies 30:1 (Winter 1990): 41-69.
26. “The Book of Mormon Critical Text Project: Piecing Together the Original Manuscript”, BYU Today 46:3 (May 1992): 18-24. [cover story]
27. “Book of Mormon Editions (1830-1981)”, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 175-176. Macmillan: New York, New York 1992.
28. “Book of Mormon Manuscripts”, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 185-186. Macmillan: New York, New York 1992.
29. “The Book of Mormon Critical Text Project”, Joseph Smith: The Prophet, The Man, edited by Susan Easton Black and Charles D. Tate, Jr., 65-75. Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University: Provo, Utah, 1993.
30. “Jacob 4-6: Substantive Textual Variants”, The Allegory of the Oliver Tree, edited by Stephen Ricks and John W. Welch, 105-139. Deseret Book: Salt Lake City, Utah, 1994.
31. “Productivity and the English Past Tense: Testing Skousen's Analogy Model” (with Bruce L. Derwing), The Reality of Linguistic Rules, edited by Susan D. Lima, Roberta L. Corrigan, and Gregory K. Iverson, 193-218. John Benjamins: Amsterdam, 1994.
32. “The Original Language of the Book of Mormon: Upstate New York Dialect, King James English, or Hebrew?” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 3:1 (1994): 28-38.
33. “Critical Methodology and the Text of the Book of Mormon”, Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 6:1 (1994): 121-144.
34. “The Original Language of the Book of Mormon: Upstate New York Dialect, King James English, or Hebrew?” Annual of the Association for Mormon Letters, 1995: Papers from 1993-94, edited by Lavina Fielding Anderson, 24-31. Association for Mormon Letters: Provo, Utah, 1995.
35. “Analogy: A Non-Rule Alternative to Neural Networks”, Rivista di Linguistica 7:2 (1995): 213-231. 21
36. “Translating the Book of Mormon: Evidence from the Original Manuscript”, Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence for Ancient Origins, edited by Noel B. Reynolds, 61-93. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies: Provo, Utah, 1997.
37. “Textual Variants in the Isaiah Quotations in the Book of Mormon”, Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, edited by Donald W. Parry and John W. Welch, 369-390. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies: Provo, Utah, 1998.
38. “How much of the King James Bible is William Tyndale's? An Estimate Based on Sampling” (with Jon Nielson), Reformation 3 (1998): 49-74.
39. “Natural Statistics in Language Modeling”, Journal of Quantitative Linguistics 5:3 (1998): 246-255.
40. “How Joseph Smith Translated the Book of Mormon: Evidence from the Original Manuscript”, Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 7:1 (1998): 22-31.
41. “John Gilbert's 1892 Account of the 1830 Printing of the Book of Mormon”, The Disciple as Witness: Essays on Latter-day Saint History and Doctrine in Honor of Richard Lloyd Anderson, edited by Stephen D. Ricks, Donald W. Parry, and Andrew H. Hedges, 383-405. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies: Provo, Utah, 2000.
42. “Book of Mormon, Manuscripts and Editions”, Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History, edited by Arnold K. Garr, Donald Q. Cannon, and Richard O. Cowan, 120-121. Deseret Book: Salt Lake City, Utah, 2000.
43. “Was the Path Nephi Saw ‘Strait and Narrow’ or ‘Straight and Narrow’?” (with Noel B. Reynolds), Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 7:1 (2001):30-33,70.
44. “History of the Critical Text Project of the Book of Mormon”, Uncovering the Original Text of the Book of Mormon: History and Findings of the Critical Text Project, edited by M. Gerald Bradford and Alison V. P. Coutts, 5-21. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University: Provo, Utah, 2002.
45. “Findings about the Printer's Manuscript”, Uncovering the Original Text of the Book of Mormon: History and Findings of the Critical Text Project, edited by M. Gerald Bradford and Alison V. P. Coutts, 37. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University: Provo, Utah, 2002.
46. “The Systematic Text of the Book of Mormon”, Uncovering the Original Text of the Book of Mormon: History and Findings of the Critical Text Project, edited by M. Gerald Bradford and Alison V. P. Coutts, 45-66. Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University: Provo, Utah, 2002. 22
47. “Introduction”, Analogical Modeling: An Exemplar-Based Approach to Language, edited by Royal Skousen, Deryle Lonsdale, and Dilworth B. Parkinson, 1-8. John Benjamins: Amsterdam, 2002.
48. “An Overview of Analogical Modeling”, Analogical Modeling: An Exemplar-Based Approach to Language, edited by Royal Skousen, Deryle Lonsdale, and Dilworth B. Parkinson, 11-26. John Benjamins: Amsterdam, 2002.
49. “Issues in Analogical Modeling”, Analogical Modeling: An Exemplar-Based Approach to Language, edited by Royal Skousen, Deryle Lonsdale, and Dilworth B. Parkinson, 27-48. John Benjamins: Amsterdam, 2002.
50. “Analogical Modeling and Quantum Computing”, Analogical Modeling: An Exemplar-Based Approach to Language, edited by Royal Skousen, Deryle Lonsdale, and Dilworth B. Parkinson, 319-346. John Benjamins: Amsterdam, 2002.
51. “Editions of the Book of Mormon”, Book of Mormon Reference Companion, edited by Dennis L. Largey, 112-114. Deseret Book: Salt Lake City, Utah, 2003.
52. “Manuscripts of the Book of Mormon”, Book of Mormon Reference Companion, edited by Dennis L. Largey, 124-128. Deseret Book: Salt Lake City, Utah, 2003.
53. “Analogical Modeling: Exemplars, Rules, and Quantum Computing”, Proceedings of the Twenty-Ninth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (2003), edited by Pawel Nowak, Corey Yoquelet, and David Mortensen, 425-439. Posted on
54. “Analogical Modeling”, Quantitative Linguistics, An International Handbook, edited by Reinhard Köhler, Gabriel Altmann, and Raimund G. Piotrowski, 705-716. Walter deGruyter: Berlin, 2005.
55. “Analogical Modeling and Morphological Change: The Case of the Adjectival Negative Prefix in English” (with Don Chapman), English Language and Linguistics 9:2 (2005), 1-25.
56. “The Earliest Textual Sources for Joseph Smith’s ‘New Translation’ of the King James Bible”, The FARMS Review 17:2 (2005), 451-470.
57. “The Derwing Bloodfest”, Phonology, Morphology, and the Empirical Imperative: Papers in Honour of Bruce L. Derwing, edited by Grace E. Wiebe, Gary Libben, Tom Priestly, Ron Smyth, and H. Samuel Wang, 15-25. Crane Publishing: Taipei, Taiwan, 2006.
58. “Conjectural Emendation in the Book of Mormon”, The FARMS Review 18:1 (2006), 187-231. 23
59. “Translating and Printing the Book of Mormon”, Oliver Cowdery: Scribe, Elder, Witness, edited by John W. Welch and Larry E. Morris, 75-122. Neal Maxwell Institute, Brigham Young University: Provo, Utah, 2006.
60. “Quantum Computing of Analogical Modeling of Language”, Quantum Interaction: Papers from the 2007 AAAI Spring Symposium, edited by Peter D. Bruza, William Lawless, Keith van Rijsbergen, and Donald A. Sofge, 39-45. Technical Report SS-07-08, American Association of Artificial Intelligence: Palo Alto, California, 2007.
61. “Expanding Analogical Modeling into a General Theory of Language Prediction”, Analogy in Grammar: Form and Acquisition, edited by James P. Blevins and Juliette Blevins, 164-184. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2009.
62. “Oliver Cowdery as Book of Mormon Scribe”, Days Never to Be Forgotten: Oliver Cowdery, edited by Alexander L. Baugh, 51-70. Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University: Provo, Utah, 2009.
63. “Exemplar Theory” (with Steve Chandler), Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language Sciences, edited by Patrick Hogan, pages 300-302. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2011.
64. “Analogical Models”, Encyclopedia of Language Sciences, edited by Norbert Seel [appears in online version as well as in the seven-volume print version]. Springer Verlag: Berlin, 2012 [3 pages].
65. “Analogical Modeling of Language” (with Steve Chandler), Encyclopedia of Language Sciences, edited by Norbert Seel [appears in online version as well as in the seven-volume print version]. Springer Verlag: Berlin, 2012 [5 pages].
66. “Quantum Analogical Modeling”, Encyclopedia of Language Sciences, edited by Norbert Seel [appears in online version as well as in the seven-volume print version]. Springer Verlag: Berlin, 2012.
67. “Some Textual Changes for a Scholarly Study of the Book of Mormon”, BYU Studies 51:4 (2012), 99-117.
68. “John Gilbert’s 1892 Account of the 1830 Printing of the Book of Mormon”, Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 21:2 (2012), 58-72 [a reprint of article 41, with minor revisions and photographs added].
69. “Why was one sixth of the 1830 Book of Mormon set from the original manuscript?”, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, volume 2 (2012), 93-103.
70. “The Original Text of the Book of Mormon and its Publication by Yale University Press”, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, volume 7 (2013), 57-96. 24
71. “A Brief History of Critical Text Work on the Book of Mormon”, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, volume 8 (2014), 233-248.
72. “Another Account of Mary Whitmer’s Viewing of the Golden Plates”, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, volume 10 (2014), 35-44.
73. “Changes in the Book of Mormon”, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, volume 11 (2014), 161-176.
74. “Tyndale Versus More in the Book of Mormon”, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, volume 13 (2015), 1-8.
75. “Restoring the Original Text of the Book of Mormon”, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, volume 14 (2015), 107-117.
O 76. “The Pleading Bar of God”, To Seek the Law of the Lord: Essays in Honor of John W. Welch, edited by Paul Y. Hoskisson and Daniel C. Peterson (Interpreter Foundation: Orem, Utah, 2017): 413-428.
O 77. “The Language of the Original Text of the Book of Mormon”, BYU Studies 57:3 (2018), 81-110.
O 78. “A Critical Text: An Interview with Royal Skousen”, conducted by Daniel C. Peterson. Humanities, Fall 2019, pages 18-25. College of Humanities, Brigham Young University.
O 79. “The History of the Book of Mormon Text: Parts 5 and 6 of Volume 3 of the Critical Text”, BYU Studies 59:1 (2020), 87-128. reviews
1. review of Maurice Gross, Mathematical Models in Linguistics (Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1972) in Papers in Linguistics 6 (1973): 533-535.
2. book notice for Aili Flint, Semantic Structure in the Finnish Lexicon: Verbs of Possibility and Sufficiency (Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura: Helsinki, Finland, 1980) in American Anthropologist, 84 (1982): 460.
3. review of Avraham Gileadi, The Book of Isaiah: A New Translation with Interpretive Keys from the Book of Mormon (Deseret Book: Salt Lake City, Utah, 1988); in BYU Studies 28:3 (summer 1988): 124-127.
4. review of Bible II (New World Press, Midland, Texas, 1991) in Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 6:2 (1994): 1-2. 25
5. “Introducing the Dead Sea Scrolls to an LDS Audience”, review of Donald W. Parry and Stephen D. Ricks, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Questions and Responses for Latter-day Saints (Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies: Provo, Utah, 2000); in FARMS Review of Books 12:2 (2000): 441-444.
6. review of Significant Textual Changes in the Book of Mormon: The First Printed Edition Compared to the Manuscripts and to the Subsequent Major LDS English Printed Editions, edited by John S. Dinger, foreword by Stan Larson (The Smith-Pettit Foundation: Salt Lake City, Utah 2013); in the March 2014 issue of BYU Studies 53:1, 196-212 on-line publications
1. “Analogical Modeling and the English Past Tense: A Reply to Jaeger et al. 1996” (with Steve Chandler), posted on
2. “Analogical Modeling and Quantum Computing”, preprint, posted under quantum physics on
3. “Quantum Analogical Modeling: A General Quantum Computing Algorithm for Predicting Language Behavior”, preprint, posted under Quantum Physics on
4. “Changes in the Book of Mormon”, posted on
5. “Quantum Analogical Modeling with Homogeneous Pointers”, preprint, posted under quantum physics on
6. “Restoring the Original Text of the Book of Mormon”,
7. “The Original Text of the Book of Mormon and its Publication by Yale University Press”,
8. “Textual Changes in the Book of Mormon”,
9. “Why was one sixth of the 1830 Book of Mormon set from the original manuscript?”,
10. “Who authored the three-witness statement?”,
11. “Who authored the eight-witness statement?”,
12. “Restoring the Original Text of the Book of Mormon”, www.youtube.com/watch?v=by09Diy8RZs, presentation at FAIR conference on 5 August 2010, posted 9 September 2012 by www.fairmormon.org [time 47:23].
13. “Why was one sixth of the 1830 Book of Mormon set from the original manuscript?”,
14. “Royal Skousen’s Analysis of 2013 Edition of the Book of Mormon”,
15. “The Original and Printer’s Manuscripts”, www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW65LrdubZ0, presentation at BYU on 26 February 2013, posted July 2013 by www.maxwellinstituteblog.org [time 1:54:37].
16. “The Printed Editions”, www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj2KrqPCpOY, presentation at BYU on 5 March 2013, posted July 2013 by www.maxwellinstituteblog.org [time 2:15:34].
17. “The Nature of the Original Text”, www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRgAt4PHo_8, presentation at BYU on 12 March 2013, posted July 2013 by www.maxwellinsituteblog.org [time 2:29:23].
18. “The Original Text of the Book of Mormon and its Publication by Yale University Press”,
19. review of Significant Textual Changes in the Book of Mormon: The First Printed Edition Compared to the Manuscripts and to the Subsequent Major LDS English Printed Editions, edited by John S. Dinger, foreword by Stan Larson (Smith-Pettit Foundation: Salt Lake City, Utah 2013); published online by BYU Studies on 31 January 2014 [17 pages in PDF format].
20. “A Brief History of Critical Text Work on the Book of Mormon”, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, published online 28 February 2014 [16 pages in PDF format].
21. “Another Account of Mary Whitmer’s Viewing of the Golden Plates”, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, published online 25 April 2014 [10 pages in PDF format].
22. “Hypotheses and Evidence in Book of Mormon Research”, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6mGh1cnvcA, presentation at the Book of Mormon Lands Conference, 19 October 2013, Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum, Provo, Utah, posted 18 November 2013 by www.bmaf.org; posted in 2014 by www.fairmormon.org [time 1:06:03]. 27
23. “Changes in the Book of Mormon”, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, published online 2 June 2014 [12 pages in PDF format].
24. Read-only version of Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon (volume 4 of the critical text of the Book of Mormon), published online on Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, 7 October 2014 [4,060 pages in PDF format].
25. “Tyndale Versus More in the Book of Mormon”, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, volume 13 (2014), published online 7 November 2014 [8 pages in PDF format].
26. “Restoring the Original Text of the Book of Mormon”, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, volume 14 (2015), published online 20 February 2014 [11 pages in PDF format].
27. “A theory! A theory! We have already got a theory, and there cannot be any more theories!” Exploring the Complexities in the English Language of the Book of Mormon, sponsored by BYU Studies and the Interpreter Foundation, Brigham Young University, 14 March 2015, Provo, Utah. Posted online by the Interpreter Foundation on 10 April 2015 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V5TZKyrMqg.
28. “These were days never to be forgotten”: The Witnesses to the Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon”, with Robin Jensen of the Joseph Smith Papers. Brigham Young University, 8 September 2015, Provo, Utah. Posted online by BYU Studies and the Interpreter Foundation on 4 February 2016 at http://youtube.com/watch?v=NO61V0zief8.
29. “Editing Out the ‘Bad Grammar’ in the Book of Mormon”, with Stanford Carmack, sponsored by BYU Studies, the Interpreter Foundation, the Department of Linguistics, and the College of Humanities, Brigham Young University, 6 April 2016, Provo, Utah. Posted online by BYU Studies and the Interpreter Foundation on 15 May 2016 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuMOQDJagQ8.
O 30. “The Language of the Original Text of the Book of Mormon”, with Stanford Carmack, sponsored by BYU Studies and the Interpreter Foundation, Brigham Young University, 25 September 2018, Provo, Utah. Posted online by BYU Studies and the Interpreter Foundation on 29 October 2018 at https://youtu.be/Jwt-1hqRlyE.
O 31. “The History of the Book of Mormon Text: Parts 5 and 6 of Volume 3 of the Critical Text”, sponsored by BYU Studies, the BYU College of Humanities, the Interpreter Foundation, and Book of Mormon Central on 15 January 2020, Provo, Utah. Posted online by Book of Mormon Central on 2 March 2020 at https://youtu.be/4jlPgeX0U3Y. media publications
1. “‘Miss Stopp, Can I Go to the Bathroom?’: The Travails of a Modern Grammarian”, Investor's Hotline, October 1988 [one-hour tape]. 28
2. “A Critical Text Analysis of the Book of Mormon”, Investor's Hotline, September 1992 [one-hour tape].
3. “The Critical Text Project of the Book of Mormon”, Voices in the Human Conversation, BYU Broadcasting, 8 December 2006 [one-hour presentation].
4. “The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon”, KJZZ television series on the Joseph Smith Papers, 25 May 2008 [one-half hour presentation]. (Published as a DVD, “The Book of Mormon Translation”, episode 12, Joseph Smith Papers, Television Documentary Series, Season 1; Salt Lake City, Utah, 2009.)
5. “The 1830 Edition of the Book of Mormon”, KJZZ television series on the Joseph Smith Papers, 1 June 2008 [one-half hour presentation]. (Published as a DVD, “Book of Mormon Printing and Editions”, episode 13, Joseph Smith Papers, Television Documentary Series, Season 1; Salt Lake City, Utah, 2009.)
6. Commentary in three episodes of History of the Saints, produced by Glenn Rawson and Dennis Lyman, April-May 2014, KSL television series on the life of Joseph Smith, season 3:
“A Marvelous Work and a Wonder” (episode 418) with special new information on Mary Whitmer viewing the plates: Joseph and Oliver skipping rocks Mary Whitmer about ready to turn them out
“Printing the Book of Mormon”, parts I and II (episodes 420-421) new information on taking the printer’s manuscript to Canada in February 1830 the 1830 typesetter setting from the original manuscript for one-sixth the text about half as many transmission errors for this part of the text John Gilbert using the printer’s manuscript at home for two nights to add the punctuation to the Isaiah portions other major productions
1. A special thematic section on Royal Skousen's theory of analogical modeling in Rivista di Linguistica 7:2 (1995), with an introduction by William G. Eggington (211-212), a general paper by Skousen on his theory (namely, his Milwaukee paper, “Analogy: A Non-Rule Alternative to Neural Networks” (213-231), and two articles discussing Skousen's analogy model by Steve Chandler (University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho), “Non-Declarative Linguistics: Some Neuropsychological Perspectives” (233-247) and Derek Robinson (Ontario College of Art, Toronto, Ottawa, Canada), “Index and Analogy: A Footnote to the Theory of Signs” (249-272).
2. Analogical Modeling: An Exemplar-Based Approach to Language, edited by Royal Skousen, Deryle Lonsdale, and Dilworth B. Parkinson. John Benjamins, Amsterdam, 2002. [426 pages]. This book discusses Royal Skousen's theory of analogical 29
modeling and includes contributions from 16 authors from six different countries. The papers were initiated by the international conference on Analogical Modeling of Language held at Brigham Young University on 22-24 March 2000, but virtually all the papers involve later research. Four of the articles, covering 74 pages, are by Skousen himself, who also did most of the editing. The book was peer-reviewed and published as the tenth volume in John Benjamins' series “Human Cognitive Processing”.
3. A special FARMS publication on Royal Skousen's critical text project of the Book of Mormon: Uncovering the Original Text of the Book of Mormon: History and Findings of the Critical Text Project, edited by M. Gerald Bradford and Alison V. P. Coutts (Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 2002). This 80-page publication includes two major articles by Royal Skousen (who did the actual editing for the book), plus articles by others on their collaborative work with him on the project: Robert J. Espinosa, “Fragments of the Original Manuscript” (pages 22-31); Ronald E. Romig, “The Printer's Manuscript” (pages 32-38); and Larry W. Draper, “Book of Mormon Editions” (pages 39-44). There is also an introduction by the editors (pages 1-4) and a response by Daniel C. Peterson (pages 67-71).
4. “The History of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project”, two-hour interview of Royal Skousen by Ron Barney for the Joseph Smith Papers Project (available on DVD), LDS Church Historical Department (with the support of Larry H. Miller and KJZZ television), 7 November 2006. other productions derived from scholarly work
1. editor, Deseret Language and Linguistic Society: Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Symposium of the Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, 27-28 March 1980. Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, Provo, Utah, 1980.
2. summaries of symposium presentation and discussion, Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, edited by Eli Fischer-Jørgensen and Nina Thorsen, volume III: 74, 210, 213. Institute of Phonetics, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1980.
3. linguistic consultant for Edmund H. Henderson et al., Spelling (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, Massachusetts, 1982; revised edition, 1985): grades 1-8 spelling program (textbooks and workbooks, plus a teacher's annotated edition)
4. editor, Studies in Finnish Language and Culture. Ministry of Education, the Government of Finland, Helsinki, Finland, 1986.
5. various reports in the media on the discovery of additional fragments from the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon: one hour radio interview by Dennis Wardle on KSRR (17 November 1991, with an update on 28 September 1997), 30
FARMS Update (January 1992), BYU College of Humanities Newsletter (March 1992), Ensign (April 1992).
6. organized and ran international conference (Analogical Modeling of Language) at Brigham Young University, 22-24 March 2000; nine of the twenty speakers were from six foreign countries.
7. various reports in the media on the publication of the first two volumes of the Book of Mormon critical text project: FARMS Insights (June 2001), BYU Magazine (Fall 2001), one-half hour radio interview by Tom Draschel on KTKK (17 October 2001), two hour radio interview by Martin Tanner on KSL (28 October 2001).
8. organized FARMS symposium on the Book of Mormon critical text project, Brigham Young University, 20 October 2001; three additional speakers on the history of the project (Robert Espinosa, Harold B. Lee Library, BYU; Ron Romig, Archivist, Community of Christ; Larry Draper, Harold B. Lee Library, BYU), plus two respondents to paper on the systematic text of the Book of Mormon (Richard Anderson, Daniel Peterson).
9. “Recovering the Original Text of the Book of Mormon: An Interim Review” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 15:1 (2006), 30-65: five independent reviews of part 1 of volume 4 of the critical text project (Terryl Givens, Robert Matthews, Grant Hardy, Kevin Barney, and Kerry Muhlestein).
10. reviews and reports in the print and electronic media regarding the publication of the Yale edition of The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text:
“Truth, Errors(s) in the Book of Mormon”, Jeremiah Stettler, The Salt Lake Tribune, 12 September 2009, C1-C2
“Revelation Revised”, Stephen Prothero, The Wall Street Journal, 2 October 2009, W13
review for Choice Magazine, Seth Perry, University of Chicago Divinity School, February 2010; published by the American Library Association [in early 2011, the Yale edition was selected as a Choice Academic Title for 2010 in the Religion category]
“‘Earliest Text’ a Boon to Readers,” Daniel C. Peterson, Mormon Times, 27 May 2010
“The Book of Mormon and the Manuscripts”, Grant Hardy, Meridian Magazine, 17 November 2010
11. academic reviews in print journals of the Yale edition of The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text:
Seth Perry, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 62/3 [2011]: 640-41
Daniel C. Peterson, The FARMS Review 22/2 [2010]: 232-34 [appeared in 2011] 31
Robert L. Maxwell, BYU Studies 50/2 [2011]: 178-82, plus a correction in the subsequent issue on page 191
Brant A. Gardner, The Journal of Mormon History, 37/2 [2011]: 215-220
12. assistance with Stanford Carmack in the publication of his seminal article “A Look at Some ‘Nonstandard’ Book of Mormon Grammar” in Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 11 (2014): 209-262 [plus other articles on Book of Mormon syntax to appear in the Interpreter in 2015]
13. organized the following one-day conference, with proceedings recorded and publication planned: “Exploring the Complexities in the English Language of the Book of Mormon”, Saturday, 14 March 2015, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., 251 Tanner Building, BYU, sponsored by BYU Studies and the Interpreter Foundation
to report and discuss the latest investigations into a wide range of linguistic elements in the Book of Mormon, including expressions that do not appear to have been in use in the nineteenth century
9 a.m. welcome by Daniel C. Peterson, Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, BYU; and President of the Interpreter Foundation
9:15 a.m. Stanford Carmack, JD, Stanford University; PhD, University of California at Santa Barbara (historical syntax); independent scholar
Exploding the Myth of Unruly Book of Mormon Grammar: A Look at the Excellent Match with Early Modern English
The grammar of the Book of Mormon has been naively criticized since its publication in 1830. The supposedly bad grammar is a match with language found in the Early Modern English textual record. Syntactic usage, especially past tense with did and the command construction, points only to that era. Book of Mormon language exhibits well-formed variation typical of the 16th and 17th centuries.
10 a.m. Jan J. Martin, Assistant Visiting Professor of Ancient Scripture, BYU
Charity, Priest, and Church versus Love, Elder, and Congregation: The Book of Mormon’s connection to the debate between William Tyndale and Thomas More
Thomas More and William Tyndale were staunch opponents but they did agree on two things: (1) that language and theology were inseparable, and (2) that errors of language could lead to serious errors in theology. These two commonalities fueled their famous debate about Tyndale’s translation of the Greek words presbuteros, ekklçsia, and agapç into English as elder, congregation, and love. Though three centuries separate the Book of Mormon from More and Tyndale, that gap will be closed as the Book of Mormon’s use of charity/love, priest/elder, and congregation/church are analyzed within a sixteenth-century context. 32
10:45 a.m. 15-minute break
11:00 a.m. Nick Frederick, Assistant Professor of Ancient Scripture, BYU
“Full of grace, mercy, and truth”: Exploring the Complexities of the Presence of the New Testament within the Book of Mormon
While it has often been observed that the language of the New Testament plays a key role in the English text of the Book of Mormon, how the New Testament appears in the Book of Mormon has not been thoroughly explored. This presentation will offer some preliminary suggestions on how we can adequately identify New Testament passages within the Book of Mormon, as well as examining the variety of ways the New Testament text is woven throughout the pages of the Book of Mormon.
11:45 a.m. Royal Skousen, Professor of Linguistics and English Language, BYU; and editor of the Book of Mormon critical text project, 1988 – present
“A theory! A theory! We have already got a theory, and there cannot be any more theories!”
Three common views regarding the translation of the Book of Mormon, still held by some, can be summarized as follows: (1) as Joseph Smith translated, ideas came to his mind and he expressed those ideas in his own language and phraseology; (2) as a result, the original English language of the Book of Mormon is based on Joseph’s upstate New York dialect, intermixed with his own style of biblical English; and (3) the Book of Mormon deals with the religious and political issues of Joseph’s own time. In this paper I will draw upon the work of the Book of Mormon critical text project to argue that all of these views are essentially misguided and are based on a firm determination to hold to preconceived notions, no matter what the evidence.
12:45 p.m. concluding remarks by John W. Welch, Robert K. Thomas University Professor of Law, BYU; and Editor in Chief, BYU Studies
The videos of the conference have been posted on YouTube by the Interpreter Foundation (10 April 2015):
http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/events/2015-exploring-the-complexities-in-the- english-language-of-the-book-of-mormon/conference-videos/
The link to Skousen’s presentation is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V5TZKyrMqg
14. The Library of America published in 2016 (with permission from Yale University Press) Alma 24 from the Yale text, with its sense-lines, in Lawrence Rosenwald’s edited volume War No More: Three Centuries of American Antiwar and Peace Writing, pages 21-27; the introduction includes an accurate evaluation of whether the Anti-Nephi-Lehies should be considered antiwar advocates 33
O 15. I arranged in 2018 and 2019 for the Louis Crandall family to sell the Crandall Historical Printing Museum in Provo, Utah to Amy and John Johnson of Alpine, Utah, with the museum being transferred intact in the summer of 2019 to a building owned by the Johnsons in Alpine; in the fall of 2019 the museum was available for tours (by appointment); this transfer of ownership was necessary in order to prevent the breaking up and the selling of the museum’s individual presses to various universities and printing museums in the United States, thus allowing Louis Crandall’s museum to continue as a unit (and as he envisioned it) and allowing classes in the history of the book to continue their visits to the museum, although now in a different location
O 16. In 2015-16, I worked extensively with Grant Hardy in carefully going over his forthcoming revised reader’s edition of the Book of Mormon. Earlier, I gave him permission to draw freely from the Book of Mormon critical text project and my findings as editor of that project, with his acknowledgment of that use on the title page of the book and in the footnotes. During 2015 and 2016, I made a thorough review of his original notes to this revised edition. In early 2019, the work appeared, published by the Maxwell Institute at Brigham Young University (and co-published with the Religious Studies Center at BYU and with Deseret Book). It contains 719 notes (some of which I had never seen before) as well as other comments that derive directly from the Book of Mormon critical text project. More specifically, Hardy has 441 notes that directly refer to the readings in the two Book of Mormon manuscripts, the original (O) and the printer’s (P), although Hardy’s use of these readings derives from my transcripts and not from any actual viewing of the manuscripts; 186 notes referring to Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, up through the second edition, and referred to by Hardy as ATV; and 92 unacknowledged notes deriving from the project, including readings in the Yale edition of the Book of Mormon; it is these 719 notes about changes in the text which makes this revised reader’s edition of the Book of Mormon especially valuable. papers in Proceedings of the Deseret Language and Linguistic Society
1. “English Spelling and Phonemic Representation”, Deseret Language and Linguistic Society: Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Symposium of the Deseret Language and Linguistic Society 27-28 March 1980, edited by Royal Skousen, 184-190. Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, Provo, Utah, 1980.
2. “Probabilistic Descriptions of Finnish Morphology”, Deseret Language and Linguistic Society: Proceedings, Seventh Annual Symposium, 26-27 March 1981, edited by C. Ray Graham, 78-85. Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, Provo, Utah, 1981.
3. “Analogical Descriptions of Variation”, Deseret Language and Linguistic Society: Selected Papers from the Proceedings, Eleventh Annual Symposium, 14-15 February 1985, edited by Robert A. Russell, 132-145. Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, Provo, Utah, 1986.
4. “Towards a Critical Text of the Book of Mormon”, Deseret Language and Linguistic Society: Selected Papers from the Proceedings, Fourteenth Annual Symposium, 17-18 March 34
1988, edited by Elray L. Pederson, 194-226. Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, Provo, Utah, 1988.
5. “Progress Report on the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project”, Deseret Language and Linguistic Society: Selected Papers from the Proceedings, Fifteen Annual Symposium, 13-14 March 1989, edited by Soren F. Cox, 194-200. Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, Provo, Utah, 1989.
6. “Progress Report on the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project”, Deseret Language and Linguistic Society: Selected Papers from the Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Symposium, 22-23 February 1990, edited by Melvin J. Luthy, 63-69. Deseret Language and Linguistic Society, Provo, Utah, 1990.
7. “Report on the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project”, Proceedings of the Deseret Language and Linguistics Society, 1991 Symposium, 7-8 March 1991, edited by Larry G. Childs, 49-52. Deseret Language and Linguistics Society, Provo, Utah, 1991.
8. “New Fragments from the Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon”, Proceedings of the Deseret Language and Linguistics Society, 1992 Symposium, 20-21 February 1992, edited by Elray L. Pederson, 1-4. Deseret Language and Linguistics Society, Provo, Utah, 1992.
9. “Hebraisms in the Original Text of the Book of Mormon”, Proceedings of the Deseret Language and Linguistics Society, 1993 Symposium, 1-2 April 1993, edited by Dallin D. Oaks and Andrew Bay, 189-192. Deseret Language and Linguistics Society, Provo, Utah, 1993.
10. “Critical Methodology and the Text of the Book of Mormon”, Deseret Language and Linguistics Society: Selected Papers from the Proceedings, Twentieth Annual Symposium, 3-4 March 1994, edited by Gretel H. Richins and R. Kirk Belnap, 87-97. Deseret Language and Linguistics Society, Provo, Utah, 1994.
11. “Fragments from the American Dead Sea: Reconstructing the Original Text of the Book of Mormon”, Deseret Language and Linguistics Society: Selected Papers from the Proceedings, Twenty-First Annual Symposium, 9-10 March 1995, edited by Jeffrey S. Turley and Karen Lusby, 3-12. Deseret Language and Linguistics Society, Provo, Utah, 1995.
Book of Mormon critical text project
electronic facsimile transcripts of the original and printer's manuscripts (1,424 pages of transcript)
electronic versions of 21 editions of the Book of Mormon 1830 (Palmyra), 1837 (Kirtland), 1840 (Cincinnati) 1841, 1849, 1852 (British editions) 1858 (Wright) 1874R, 1892R (RLDS editions) 35
1879, 1888 (large print, Salt Lake City), 1902 (Kansas City), 1905 (Chicago), 1906 (large print, Salt Lake City), 1907 (pocket edition, Salt Lake City), 1911 (large print, Chicago) 1908R, 1953R (RLDS editions) 1920, 1981 1966R (RLDS modernization)
computerized collations for the entire text lists every variant for the two manuscripts and 20 editions (excluding 1966R) 2,099 printed pages in all
original analysis of the entire text (1995-1999) discussion of variation in the text, 3,650 pages 1,471 suggested changes to the current text videos, tapes, and transcripts made by FARMS
“Textual Criticism of the Book of Mormon”, series of 20 videos and tapes of BYU class taught Winter 1994 semester.
“The Critical Text of the Book of Mormon”, 1994.
“Textual Variants in the Isaiah Quotations in the Book of Mormon”, 1995.
“John Gilbert's 1892 Account of the 1830 Printing of the Book of Mormon”, 1997.
“Translating the Book of Mormon: Evidence from the Original Manuscript”, 1997. 36
Fundamental Scholarly Discoveries and Academic Accomplishments by Royal Skousen from about 1970 to 2020; first placed online in 2014
* Several items are marked with small asterisks, which means that each of these findings has not yet appeared in print (although evidence for these discoveries can be found in my academic papers and personal papers, now being submitted to special collections in the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University).
Linguistics
The failure of formal (internal) evidence in linguistics; the discovery of substantive (external) evidence in linguistics, plus its application to phonology and morphology.
All phonological and morphological rules must be derived from surface-based forms.
Abstract representations derive from morphological rules coupled with the existence of actual phonological rules in the language.
* Syntactic processing is based on surface forms and occurs in time, with processing of the text, so to speak, from left to right (the direction of writing). [See one large file in my papers, plus a four-page handout in my lecturing file called NLP.] A summary of this approach will appear in chapter 8 of my QAM book, with a demonstration of how Analogical Modeling will deal with basic sentence types in natural language processing.
show in principle how to deal with syntax begin with instances of surface (nonabstract) sequences in linear order (in time) referred to as “left-to-right surface” syntax natural language processing (NLP): the way speakers process the language show how an exemplar-based system deals with the five basic sentence types in English in contrast to a transformation system of one base type and four derived types
the five basic types: a minimal “left-to-right surface” grammar based on exemplars (1) declarative: John looked at Mary. (2) imperative: Look at Mary. (3) yes-no question: Did John look at Mary? (4) wh-question of subject: Who looked at Mary? (5) wh-question of object: Who(m) did John look at?
develop the basic syntax from exemplars show predictability of both contiguous and noncontiguous relationships waiting for closure: the finite verb binding of preceding nominals pronominalization 37
Analogical Modeling of Language
Language properties can only be derived from a language theory that is based on learning and using examples, not learning and using rules. The best exemplar-based approach for describing the general properties of language is Analogical Modeling.
Analogical Modeling is used to show the properties of one-way leakage for an > a and the turbulent drift in historical change (also for an > a).
The discovery of cases of Analogical Modeling where nearest neighbors will not work, but gang effects further away take over (for example, sorti in Finnish).
* The discovery of how abstract representations derive from Analogical Modeling, not from morphological rules. [This finding replaces the argumentation from rules found in my Goyvaerts paper from 1981, “Analogical Sources of Abstractness”. The analogical analysis will appear in the chapter devoted to abstract representations in my QAM book, chapter 7.]
my original proposal (in “Analogical Sources of Abstractness”, 1981) children’s replacement of concrete representations with abstract ones the more frequent and general “morphological rules” get extended removing the less frequent and more specific “morphological rules”
a complete reworking of my 1981 paper on the sources of abstractness now rules are replaced by exemplars AM directly predicts abstract phonemic representations in language acquisition removing concrete representations in favor of abstract ones we end up with abstract representations but only when there are pronunciation rules that mask the abstractness
summarizing properties for abstract representations in English show the drift that will occur show the elimination of the minor subtypes in favor of the major type show the errors that occur along the way while drift towards regularity is occurring no need to worry about whether voicing is distinctive for sonorants and vowels
The Mathematics and Statistics of Analogical Modeling
The advantages of a quadratic-based measure of information over the standard logarithmic one.
The natural relationship of the quadratic measure of uncertainty for continuous distributions.
The proof that optimal descriptions (correct rules and the least number of rules) minimizes the probability that the description is accidental.
Methods of measuring the overall effect of a variable in predicting an outcome. 38
The failure of rule approaches to describe language behavior, to be replaced by exemplar-based approaches.
Using exemplars to show how people might learn and use probabilistic rules (but only indirectly).
The concept of natural statistical tests, ones that do not rely on probability distributions, and the discovery of several different kinds of natural statistics.
The discovery of the natural statistic for Analogical Modeling that uses no statistical calculation at all.
The demonstration that Analogical Modeling can predict the processing time found in various identification tasks, thus obviating claims that analogy cannot in general predict processing times.
The proof that imperfect memory set at ì = ½ makes Analogical Modeling equivalent to standard statistical tests, which means that one can replace levels of significance in decision making with different levels of imperfect memory. The notion of level of significance is equivalent to making correct predictions by remembering only a certain fraction of the data.
Quantum Computing of Analogical Modeling
The correct analogical approach for describing language applies to each possible true rule (but to none of the false rules) and each with a probability proportional to the frequency squared of that rule.
The discovery that in Analogical Modeling the heterogeneity of each supracontext can be determined independently of any other supracontext but with the same unconditional application of decision procedures in determining the heterogeneity for each supracontext.
The conversion of decision procedures into reversible operators, with the use of such operators to predict heterogeneity in Analogical Modeling.
By restricting qubits to only 0 and 1, a quantum computer can do any regular computer algorithm, but with the advantage of parallel processing. Quantum Analogical Modeling (QAM) is a quantum algorithm that allows for an exponential speedup, but is much more general than Shor’s or Grover’s algorithms. In other words, as long as one retains qubits in the real states 0 and 1, one can use the parallelism of quantum computing to solve general algorithmic problems.
Analogical Modeling reduces the exponentiality of various algorithmic problems to polynomial time and space (memory). In a straight-forward but laborious method, heterogeneity can be even determined in linear time and space. In the conceptually simplest method, the algorithm works in quadratic time and space. 39
Scriptural Studies
Establishing the need for LDS readers to have an English Bible translation with modern English meanings. Thus far the best one I have found is the English Standard Version (ESV), from its 2011 revision.
William Tyndale is responsible for 5/6ths of the specific words in the New Testament translation of the King James Bible and 3/4ths of the words in the part of the Old Testament that he translated.
There are serious problems with the Joseph Smith Translation that prevent it from being fully canonized for LDS readers.
* The Book of Abraham was a revelation given to Joseph Smith, who later (mistakenly thinking it was a translation from the papyri he had in his possession) tried to connect the revealed text to the papyri by inserting two sentences, verse 12c and verse 14, into Abraham 1. The secondary nature of these two inserted sentences can be directly observed in the photos of folios 1a and 1b in the document identified as Ab2. Verse 12c is totally inserted intralinearly, not partially (as incorrectly represented in the accompanying transcription – and without comment). Verse 14 is not written on the page as are other portions of this part of the text (instead, it is written flush to the left), which implies that it is a comment on the papyri and that it was added to the revealed text. Overall, these results imply that all the facsimiles from the papyri (1-3 in the published Pearl of Great Price) should be considered extracanonical and additions to the revealed text of the Book of Abraham, not integral parts of the original text of the book.
Textual Criticism of the Book of Mormon
Production of the first, complete transcriptions of the Book of Mormon manuscripts (the original and the printer’s manuscripts, O and P) from photographs and the actual documents. Published in 2001 in three books, as volumes 1 and 2 of the critical text of the Book of Mormon.
The published discovery of new fragments of O: the Wilford Wood fragments (from 58 pages of O) and the Ada Cheney fragments (from 4 pages of O).
The discovery that from Helaman 13 through the end of Mormon the 1830 edition was set from O, not P, and later the discovery that this was because in February 1830 Oliver Cowdery and others took a completed P with them to Canada in order “to secure a copyright” to the Book of Mormon in the British realm, and thus the 1830 typesetter used O to set the text for this part of the Book of Mormon.
The discovery that one must distinguish between strict copyists and editors in determining tendencies in textual change. For editors, the text over time gets longer and easier. But for strict copyists, the text over time gets shorter and more difficult. The transmission of the Book of Mormon text from O to P and from P to the 1830 edition clearly shows the Book of Mormon text getting shorter and more difficult.
The creation of electronic versions for 20 printed editions of the Book of Mormon (from 1830 through 1981), mostly by scanning the text using optical character recognition. 40
A computerized collation of the 20 editions and the two manuscripts, plus the identification of each kind of textual variant; to be published as volume 5 of the critical text of the Book of Mormon.
The discovery of 606 new readings in the text that have never been published in any standard edition of the Book of Mormon (LDS or RLDS).
The discovery of 241 changes in the text that will show up in translations of the Book of Mormon (that is, these differences alter the meaning).
The discovery of about 15 name changes for the text.
The discovery in the original text of Hebrew-like expressions (at least, non-English expressions in the original text) that have subsequently been removed by editing of the text. This characterization has recently been nuanced: the extra and’s only show up where the preceding subordinate clause involves some sort of parenthetical or extra clause.
The first publication of a complete analysis of all the various types of textual changes (both in substantives and accidentals) in the history of the Book of Mormon text, with the following basic results:
accidentals adding the word chapter 273 adding chapter and verse numbers 9,677 paragraphing 1,420 punctuation 41,619 periods for numbers 6,620 spelling ampersands 15,577 spelling of etc 18 spelling of common English words 7,982 scribal slips in manuscripts 1,780 typos in editions 2,087 capitalization 19,455
total 106,508
substantives spelling of names 541 spelling of homophones 420 editing of the text 3,837 unintentional changes in the text 5,567
total 10,355
The discovery that the vocabulary of the Book of Mormon dates from about 1540 through 1740; it is not based just on the vocabulary in the 1611 King James Bible alone but more generally represents Early Modern English usage; similarly, the discovery that the nonstandard syntactic structure of the Book of Mormon can be traced to Early Modern English usage, in most cases, or to Hebrew-like constructions that have never been acceptable in English. 41
I first published some of my ideas on the vocabulary in 2005 when I discussed the phrase pleading bar (under Jacob 6:13 in ATV 2:1047-1052), then I treated it more fully in 2006 with respect to the word sermon (under Mosiah 19:24 in ATV 3:1389-1395). My research assistant Renee Bangerter entertained the hypothesis first in her BYU MA thesis (August 1998), “Since Joseph Smith’s Time: Lexical Semantic Shifts in the Book of Mormon”. She discusses sermon under ceremony and also counsel for counsel with. Christian Gellinek suggested pleading bar to me on 25 September 2003. It took a little while for me to get used to the idea of Early Modern English vocabulary.
The discovery that the Book of Mormon text is cognizant of the linguistic debate between William Tyndale and Thomas More over how to translate the New Testament. The Book of Mormon follows the decisions made in the 1611 King James Bible, but treats them from Tyndale’s point of view. Moreover, the Book of Mormon text appears to be more of a post-reformation text, at least in terms of its translation.
Alexander Campbell claimed in his early review of the Book of Mormon (in 1831) that Joseph Smith’s golden bible was simply commenting on the religious issues of the early 1800s in America. To the contrary, there is considerable evidence that the issues and the cultural milieu of the text date more from the late 1600s than the early 1800s, during a time when the conflicts between the low- church Protestants, high-church Anglicans, and Catholics had been basically resolved (or at least reached a kind of peaceful truce in England). References to “secret combinations” and to “standing at the bar of God to be judged” can be more reasonably traced to this period, not to the early 1800s or to biblical usage. The translation issues that Thomas More viciously attacked William Tyndale over were, more or less, settled on in the King James Bible (1611), yet the Book of Mormon takes those translation issues to their final conclusion by explicitly resolving the conflict by (1) declaring charity to be the “pure love of Christ”, (2) allowing for both elders and priests as offices in the church, and (3) explicitly stating that the word church refers to both congregation and God’s organization.
The discovery that the text was given to Joseph Smith word-for-word and that he could see the words of English, which he read off to his scribe.
The discovery that Joseph Smith could see the spelling of the names, which for the strange Book of Mormon names he typically read off the spelling letter-for-letter when the name first appeared.
The discovery that the phraseology in the original text is extremely consistent, with over 133 changes that make the original text read more consistently.
The restoration of 38 unique readings to the text, which is unusually low when compared with the preceding finding.
The realization that conjectured readings have entered the text at all stages of its history; about one fourth of these conjectures appear to represent the original reading of the text. We get the following summary of total number of conjectures made to the text:
Oliver Cowdery in the manuscripts 131 John Gilbert, the 1830 typesetter 167 Joseph Smith (1837 and 1840 editions) 217 Orson Pratt (1849 and 1879 editions) 17 42
Franklin and Samuel Richards (1852 edition) 17 German Ellsworth (1905 and 1911 editions) 8 James Talmage (1920 edition) 130 1981 scriptures committee 10 2009 Yale edition 139
The grammatical editing of the text appears to be human editing. The textual restoration that has occurred in the editing of the printed editions relies on recovery work from the earliest textual sources or from conjectural emendation, but not from new revelation.
There is only one revealed stage in the history of the Book of Mormon text: this is when Joseph Smith received the text by means of the Nephite interpreters or by the seer stone. All other stages show human transmission of the text.
Publication of a third account of Moroni showing the golden plates to Mary Whitmer, the mother of five witnesses of the Book of Mormon plates. This account, courtesy of Carl Cox, comes from the Christian Whitmer line and describes how Mary was going to order Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery from her home because they were not offering to help with the chores and instead were skipping rocks on a nearby pond.
* Identifying who counts as a bonafide witness of how the Book of Mormon was translated and what aspects of their witness can be accepted as eye-witness testimony. Here follows my reply to JJJim’s statement posted on amazon.com under the Yale edition of the Book of Mormon; there he makes several comments regarding the witnesses of the translation process, and I have added this response on amazon.com:
There were six bonafide witnesses, all of which refer to Joseph Smith placing the instrument of translation in a hat (apparently to obscure the light) and then reading off the English text to his scribe, with the scribe reading back every so often what he had written down so they could check the transmitted text. Each of the six witnesses either wrote down their account in their own hand or gave interviews that were soon published (within weeks or a few months). They are: Emma Smith, Martin Harris, Michael Morse (Emma’s brother-in-law and never a Mormon), Joseph Knight Senior, David Whitmer, and Elizabeth Ann Whitmer (David’s sister, and later the wife of Oliver Cowdery). The translation process took place in the open, so others could see what was going on. There was no curtain separating Joseph from his scribe. The plates were not used but were in the vicinity (Emma said they were wrapped up, nearby on the table).
Joseph Smith could dictate for hours, with the scribe taking down the dictation. (We can figure out that they would have averaged about six hours a day transmitting the text, if they did it continuously, without any breaks, but we know they took breaks.) Joseph had no papers, manuscripts, or books (and apparently no Bible) available for consulting. Two instruments were used by him: the (Nephite) interpreters that came with the plates (two clear stones) and a seer stone that Joseph Smith possessed. Most accounts refer to Joseph using the seer stone, but Martin Harris said Joseph could use either instrument but he found the seer stone “more convenient”. The interpreters were later referred to as a Urim and Thummim. 43
Emma Smith and David Whitmer referred to the spelling out of the Book of Mormon names, for which there is evidence in the original manuscript (the spelling out of Zenoch and Coriantumr, for instance). Emma also refers to Joseph’s spelling out in the beginning of difficult-to-pronounce words of English (probably when he dictated the lost 116 pages in the spring of 1828), but there is no strong evidence for this kind of spelling out of regular words in any of the extant portions of the original manuscript (28 percent of our current text). Biblical names are clearly not controlled for and are regularly misspelled. Even later instances of Book of Mormon names are often misspelled. And there is little, if any, evidence for the spelling of regular English words. Perhaps scribe 3 (who may be Christian Whitmer) was assisted once in spelling the word “genealogy”. Nonetheless, virtually all of the six witnesses believed that the instrument would not allow the transmission to go on unless the scribe got it down correctly, even to the spelling of English words. This is an assumption made by these witnesses since the original manuscript itself is full of spelling errors. And there are actual readings in the manuscript that are clearly wrong, spelling aside, such as “ishmael and also his hole hole” (written by scribe 3) in 1 Nephi 7:5. The correct reading here (whether “his household” or “his whole household”) was never written down by scribe 3, yet the transmission went on.
The witnesses believed in some kind of miraculous “iron clad” control of the text, but they were all wrong on this account. They must have been influenced by Joseph’s spelling out of the Book of Mormon names, thus leading them to think that no error was permitted in the manuscript. But since they could not compare the manuscript with what Joseph was actually seeing, their conclusion on this matter was speculative – and in fact wrong. None of the witnesses ever viewed through the instrument what Joseph Smith was seeing, thus any claims that they made about what Joseph was seeing (such as the appearance of a character and its translation in “bright roman letters”, and so so on) cannot be confirmed. They were not witnesses of what Joseph was seeing, although they all believed he was reading off an English text.
When we consider the testimony of these six witnesses, we can only accept what they could have actually seen themselves, not what they supposed Joseph was seeing. When we restrict their testimony to those events they could actually witness, there is general agreement. And the witnesses cover the entire process, from the dictation of the lost 116 pages in the spring of 1828 in Pennsylvania through to the completion of the book at the Whitmer home in June 1829. In the very beginning, when Joseph Smith was apparently working alone, without any scribe, and trying to figure out the process, he was copying off characters from the plates and then getting a translation. In those very early days (prior to even Emma Smith and Martin Harris acting as his scribes for the lost 116 pages in the spring of 1828), Joseph had the plates out in the open and was working with them but behind a curtain. (No one was yet permitted to see the plates.) But once Joseph figured out how to do it all, he did not use the plates directly but instead relied on dictating the text to a scribe. And apparently this process occurred from near the beginning of the 116 pages to the end of the translation (finishing with the small plates of Nephi and the words of Mormon). Yet throughout the process, the plates were nearby, in the vicinity of the translator.
The publication of 6 large books from 2004 to 2009, Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon (referred to as ATV); here the original text of the Book of Mormon is determined, to the extent possible. Here follows a comment from Grant Hardy’s 2006 review of the first book in this series:
By contrast [to the Anchor Bible commentary], most commentaries on the Book of Mormon move rather quickly from the details of the text to larger theological issues. We 44
just assume that we have all the words we need and that we know what they mean. That cavalier attitude is about to change. Royal Skousen, building on the foundation of his definitive work on the original and printer’s manuscripts, called O and P, has begun to publish a commentary on the text of the Book of Mormon that will forever change the way Latter-day Saints approach modern scripture. Two hundred years from now – long after people have stopped reading anything on the Book of Mormon now in print – students of the Book of Mormon will still be poring over Skousen’s work. What he has accomplished is nothing short of phenomenal.
Grant Hardy, “Scholarship for the Ages”, Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 15:1 (2006), 43-53.
The first edition is available online at
In early 2017, a second edition of volume 4 of the critical text, Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon was published by the Foundation for Ancient Research and Modern Studies and Brigham Young University Studies.
The publication in 2009 of The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text by Yale University Press. The second, corrected, printing appeared in 2010; the Kindle version, based on that second printing appeared in 2013. The third printing, identical to the second, appeared in 2014; and now a fourth printing, also identical, appeared in 2017. Yale University Press intends to publish a fifth printing in 2019; this printing will implement 49 additional changes to the text (about half of these will alter how we read the text). Nearly all of these additional changes are discussed in the second edition of ATV.
As of 9 December 2017, the Yale edition of the Book of Mormon is in 657 libraries around the world, according to http://byu.worldcat.org/title/book-of-mormon-the-earliest text/.
When the Yale edition is compared against the 1981 LDS edition, we find a total of 4,632 substantive differences, of which 2,241 are non-grammatical.
The use of sense-lines throughout the Yale edition, thus following in principle how Joseph Smith dictated the text by phrases and clauses to his scribe but also in making the text easier to read.
The online publication on 7 October 2014 by the Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture of volume 4 of the critical text, Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, a read-only version provided without cost to all readers. All six parts, in PDF format, are searchable. This electronic publication, permitted to the author by his 1998 agreement with FARMS, thus frees the critical text analysis from its physical printed form.
A conference on the original English-language text of the Book of Mormon, its language, concepts, and teachings, held on Saturday, 14 March 2015, at Brigham Young University, 251 Tanner Building, jointly sponsored by BYU Studies and by the Interpreter Foundation:
“Exploring the Complexities in the English Language of the Book of Mormon”
John W. Welch, editor in chief, BYU Studies, final remarks 45
Daniel C. Peterson, professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic, BYU, and president of the Interpreter Foundation, conducting and remarks after presentations
Royal Skousen, professor of Linguistics and English Language, BYU; editor of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project (1988-present); editor of The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text (Yale University Press, 2009):
The Early Modern English vocabulary in the Book of Mormon, and the cultural and doctrinal history of the Post-Reformation in England and its role in the Book of Mormon narrative.
Stanford Carmack, independent linguistics scholar, JD from Stanford University, PhD in Spanish linguistics from University of California at Santa Barbara and BA in linguistics from Stanford:
The nonstandard grammar of the original Book of Mormon and its occurrence in Early Modern English, as well as evidence that some Book of Mormon usage cannot date from the early 1800s.
Jan Martin, assistant professor in the College of Religion, BYU; wrote PhD at the University of York in England, 2011, “Establishing an English Bible in Henry VIII’s England: Translation, Vernacular Theology, and William Tyndale”:
The translation vocabulary introduced by Tyndale in his 1526 translation of the New Testament from the Greek and the strong Catholic reaction from Sir Thomas More, based on his reading of the Latin Vulgate, plus evidence that Tyndale’s usage was common for his time.
Nick Frederick, assistant professor in the College of Religion, BYU; PhD on the New Testament in the Book of Mormon at Claremont (need title):
The use of biblical phraseology, especially the King James New Testament phraseology, throughout the Book of Mormon text, not just in biblical paraphrases but specifically interwoven throughout the text as the familiar biblical style of religious language.
The online publication of the conference proceedings by the Interpreter Foundation occurred on 10 April 2015: http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/events/2015-exploring-the-complexities-in-the-english-language-of- the-book-of-mormon/conference-videos/ The link to Skousen’s presentation is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V5TZKyrMqg
A complete analysis of the grammatical emendation of the Book of Mormon text (of 1,304 pages), appears as parts 1 and 2, Grammatical Variation, of volume 3 of the critical text, The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon. This publication includes the collaborative work of Stanford Carmack. This work not only describes the grammatical changes that the Book of Mormon has undergone (from its earlier transmission in manuscript to the numerous printed editions), but it also provides evidence that virtually all the so-called bad grammar of the original text of the Book of Mormon is actually acceptable 46 language usage from Early Modern English and can be found in scholarly and academic works printed in the 1500s and 1600s. So one must not simply assume that the original nonstandard language of the Book of Mormon is due to Joseph Smith. It could very well represent the kind of language variation that speakers of Early Modern English used.
Parts 3 and 4 of volume 3 cover the nature of the original language of the Book of Mormon, with an analysis of its vocabulary, the meanings of its words, and the types of phrases and syntactic constructions it permits. As with parts 1 and 2, parts 3 and 4 include the collaborative work of Stanford Carmack. The two parts of The Nature of the Original Language cover 1,408 pages and presents evidence that the themes of the Book of Mormon represent the religious and cultural issues that were present during the Protestant Reformation, not from Joseph Smith’s time and place, and that virtually all the language of the original text of the book dates from the 1530s through the 1730s. Not only can the grammar of the Book of Mormon be found in Early Modern English (as discussed in Grammatical Variation), the whole book dates back to that same general time period.
In part 5 of volume 3, a comparison between the King James Bible and those portions directly quoted in the Book of Mormon is thoroughly delineated.
A complete analysis of the spelling variation in the Book of Mormon text appears as part 6 of volume 3 of the critical text.
Part 7 of volume 3 will cover the history of the text, from the manuscripts to the early printed editions, and then on to the later printed editions, with changes in format and language character. This part will include a thorough discussion of the types of change, including conjectural changes, in the history of the text.
And finally, part 8 of volume 3 will outline the history of the modern critical text project of the Book of Mormon, including the FARMS critical text project (from 1984-86) and the current project (beginning in 1988).
There will also be volume 5, a computerized collation of all the textual variation in the history of the Book of Mormon text, including all cases of conjectural emendation.
A willing admission that mistakes have been made in the history of the critical text project; thus there has been a concerted effort to publish cases where I have changed my mind. This attempt to correct errors can be found in the addenda section of the first edition of volume 4 of the critical text, at the end of the last of the six parts. In addition, there is my 19 October 2013 presentation at the Book of Mormon Archaeological Foundation, devoted entirely to this subject. Morever, I have always tried to acknowledge those who have helped me in this project and made suggestions, especially for emendation.
An agreement with the Joseph Smith Papers for me to act as the lead editor for three volumes that will produce photographs of the two manuscripts of the Book of Mormon, plus reproduce the equivalent of my transcripts of O and P (originally published in 2001). The printer’s manuscript, with photos and the equivalent of my 2001 transcript, was published as two volumes in August 2015. Included in the introduction were photographs of the original seer stone used to translate the text of the Book of Mormon. The original manuscript, with photos and the equivalent of my 2001 transcript, will be published in 2019 (according to the timetable set by the Joseph Smith Papers). 47
A Review of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project from November 2014 to May 2020
Royal Skousen, editor independent fund raising
raising of $136,000 from November 2014 through the summer of 2015 to pay for the typesetting of volume 3 independently of BYU
raising of $96,400 from September 2017 through December 2017 to pay for part 7 in volume 3, plus the additional typesetting independently of BYU
O raising of $147,000 in December 2019 and January 2020 to pay for part 8 in volume 3, plus the additional typesetting for volume 3; externally donated funds will be used to pay for this extra part 8 publications
August 2015, publication of Facsimile Edition of the Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, volume 3 in two parts, of the Revelations and Translations series in the Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Royal Skousen and Robin Scott Jensen (Salt Lake City, Utah: The Church Historian’s Press), 1014 pages: includes Skousen’s transcript of the printer’s manuscript, adjusted to Dean Jessee’s transcription system, along with color photographs of every page of the printer’s manuscript, plus the first published photographs of the seer stone used by Joseph Smith to translate the Book of Mormon (pages xx-xxi of part 1)
spring 2016, publication by FARMS and BYU Studies of parts 1 and 2 of volume 3, Grammatical Variation, with the collaboration of Stanford Carmack,1290 pages: lists and discusses all of the grammatical editing that the Book of Mormon has undergone, from its transmission through the manuscripts and all printed editions from 1830 through 1981
O spring 2017, publication by FARMS and BYU Studies of the second edition of volume 4 of the critical text, Analysis of Textual Variants, in six parts, 4106 pages
O fall 2018, parts 3 and 4 of volume 3, The Nature of the Original Language, with the collaboration of Stanford Carmack, 1,408 pages
O December 2019, publication of part 5 of volume 3 by FARMS and BYU Studies. This book deals with the King James Quotations in the Book of Mormon, 431 pages
O May 2020, publication of part 6 of volume 3 by FARMS and BYU Studies. This book deals with the spellings in the manuscripts and editions of the Book of Mormon, 590 pages 48
2021-2022 (estimated dates), parts 7 and 8 of volume 3 will be published by FARMS and BYU Studies; part 7 deals with the textual history of the Book of Mormon text, from the manuscripts through the printed editions; part 8 deals with the history of the Book of Mormon critical text project and the principles of textual criticism as applied to the Book of Mormon; the basic research is complete for part 7 but only about 10 percent has been written and typeset; similarly, the basic research for part 8 is done, with about 25 percent written and typeset
2022, scheduled publication date by the Joseph Smith Papers for the Facsimile Edition of the Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, edited by Royal Skousen and Robin Scott Jensen; use of Skousen’s transcript, adjusted to Dean Jessee’s transcription system; multispectral imaging is being used by the JSP to get enhanced black and white photographs of all the extant fragments of the original manuscript; Skousen will be the editor making sure the fragments (for 28 percent of the original manuscript) are all put in the right places in the final photo-shopped photographs
2023, A Complete Electronic Collation of the Book of Mormon (on CDs, online, and one printed copy in archival form in the BYU library’s special collections), volume 5 of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project, to be published by FARMS and BYU Studies; formatted in WordCruncher (to be made available online through the College of Humanities at BYU) award
2016, Mormon History Association, Best Documentary Editing, presented to Royal Skousen and Robin Jensen, editors, for “Joseph Smith Papers, Revelations and Translations, volume 3: Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon”, published by the Church Historian’s Press, 2015 formal presentations (either invited or pre-arranged by the publisher)
14 March 2015, “A theory! A theory! We have already got a theory, and there cannot be any more theories!” Exploring the Complexities in the English Language of the Book of Mormon, sponsored by BYU Studies and the Interpreter Foundation, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
8 September 2015, “These were days never to be forgotten”: The Witnesses to the Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon”, with Robin Jensen of the Joseph Smith Papers, sponsored by BYU Studies and the Maxwell Institute, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
24 September 2015, “Transcribing the Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon”, John Whitmer Historical Association, Independence, Missouri
12 March 2016, “The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon”, a presentation on volume 3 of the critical text, at the annual meeting of the Brigham Young University Academy, BYU Studies, 12 March 2016, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah 49
6 April 2016, “Editing Out the ‘Bad Grammar’ in the Book of Mormon”, with Stanford Carmack, sponsored by BYU Studies, the Interpreter Foundation, the Department of Linguistics, and the College of Humanities, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
4 August 2016, “Bad Grammar or Early Modern English? The Language of the Original Text of the Book of Mormon”, with Stanford Carmack. FAIR Mormon talk, Provo, Utah
O 12 April 2017, “A New Edition: Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon”, sponsored by “The History of the Book of Mormon Text: Parts 5 and 6 of Volume 3 of the Critical Text”, BYU Studies, the Interpreter Foundation, and the Department of Linguistics, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
O 15 August 2017, “Poetic Structures and Textual Criticism of the Book of Mormon”, Jack Welch’s conference celebrating the discovery of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon 50 years ago, sponsored by BYU Studies, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
O 25 September 2018, “The Language of the Original Text of the Book of Mormon”, with Stanford Carmack, sponsored by BYU Studies and the Interpreter Foundation, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
O 15 January 2020, “The History of the Book of Mormon Text: Parts 5 and 6 of Volume 3 of the Critical Text”, sponsored by BYU Studies. the Interpreter Foundation, Book of Mormon Central, and the College of Humanities, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah status of the Yale edition of the critical text
2009, The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text (New Haven: Yale University Press), 848 pages, with an introduction by Grant Hardy; the text is set in sense-lines; there are over 600 changes in the text that have never before appeared in any standard printed edition of the Book of Mormon; many of these are listed in the appendix (719 significant textual changes in the history of the text are found there)
each printing 2,500 copies, all hardback
2009 (first printing) 2010 (second, corrected printing) 2014 (third printing, unchanged) 2017 (fourth printing, unchanged)
Yale University Press estimates, given the current rate of sales, that there will be a fifth printing in 2020 (again in hardback); this printing will implement 51 additional changes (32 of the changes are in the Book of Mormon text itself, of which 26 involve accidentals and 6 involve substantive changes); most of the substantive changes are discussed in the second edition of volume 4, Analysis of Textual Variants. 50
2013, Yale University Press published a Print Replica Kindle edition available from Amazon.com (an exact reproduction of the 2010 second printing of the Yale edition of the Book of Mormon, with search and highlight capabilities)
2016, the Library of America published (with permission from Yale University Press) Alma 24 from the Yale text, with its sense-lines, in Lawrence Rosenwald’s edited volume War No More: Three Centuries of American Antiwar and Peace Writing, pages 21-27; the introduction includes an accurate evaluation of whether the Anti-Nephi-Lehies should be considered antiwar advocates as of 9 December 2017, the Yale edition of the Book of Mormon is in 657 libraries around the world, according to http://byu.worldcat.org/title/book-of-mormon-the-earliest-text/